Apple's switch glitch: Cube affected too

According to a Reg reader...

Apple continues to have problems with the switches that turn on its latest line of desktop Macs.

After the company admitted that there is an issue with Power Mac G4 switches burning out, we here that Cube owners are having similar problems.

It turns out the Cube's power switch is a neat little heat-sensitive jobby that register's the warmth of the user's finger and activates the machine.

It's a clever, elegant solution. The only snag is that it's sufficiently sensitive to other, more remote heat sources. And, it appears, the light mounted under the switch to show that the computer is indeed turned on.

As one Register reader put it: "The machine began to turn itself on and off, whenever it liked. Then a couple of days later another started doing the same thing. After two minutes, two hours, whenever, they just go on and off."

An attempt to fix the switch failed, and Apple duly replaced our correspondent's Cubes with Power Mac G4s.